Russia: Missile Shield to Spark Arms Race

BURT HERMAN

Published
6:00 pm CST, Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Associated Press Writer

U.S. moves to build a missile defense system will impede the fight against terrorism and lead to a "new senseless arms race," Russia warned Wednesday after the United States said it will start work on deploying the first interceptors in 2004.

Russia has long criticized American efforts to build a missile defense system, which was made possible after Washington withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that expired in June.

The government stepped up its anti-missile rhetoric after President Bush on Tuesday ordered the U.S. Defense Department to begin work within two years on deploying the first interceptors that are to form the base of the system.

The United States maintains that a missile defense system is necessary to protect the country against possible attack, primarily from rogue states that could possess ballistic missiles.

"Now, after taking a political decision to deploy in 2004 several strategic interceptors with support from space, the realization of these plans has entered a new destabilizing phase," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a two-page statement.

The statement also expressed concern that the development of such a missile defense system would divert resources from other real threats, including international terrorism.

But the head of the Russian parliament's international affairs committee, Dmitry Rogozin, said Moscow was studying U.S. proposals on missile defense cooperation. Russia also is considering working with European countries on a continental missile defense system, Rogozin said, according to the Interfax news agency.

In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer didn't respond directly to Russia's concerns but said the relationship between the two former enemies is "the best in modern times."

Still, he noted, there are sometimes disagreements that "have been handled through very patient, quiet diplomacy that has been effective."

Other countries had little reaction to the U.S announcement.

Some critics in Britain expressed worries the country's support for the plan could make it a target _ without enjoying the protection of the shield.

State-controlled media in China did not make an issue of it, and calls to the Foreign Ministry went unanswered Wednesday _ though requests for information about military affairs are usually referred to the Defense Ministry, which rarely fields questions from foreign journalists.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said the decision was Washington's and he had no comment, a spokeswoman, Misako Kaji, said.

Russia, which has fallen behind the United States in the development of space-based technology, consistently has argued for the ABM treaty.

"Consigning its principles to oblivion can lead only to the weakening of strategic stability, a new senseless arms race in the world, including the spread of weapons of mass destruction and diverting resources to counter today's real challenges and threats, above all, international terrorism," the statement said.

Marshal Igor Sergeyev, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told Interfax that Washington had not provided Russia with "any weighty arguments" that Russia was not threatened by the new system.

Sergeyev also said Russia was worried about radar systems in Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, and Britain that could be used to support the new missile defense system.

In Britain, former lawmaker Tony Benn and George Hutchinson of the World Disarmament Campaign wrote to The Guardian newspaper saying the proposed use of a British installation for the missile shield was "stupid and dangerous."

The weapons to be deployed include six ground-based interceptors to be based in Alaska by the end of 2004, with 10 more added a year later. Four interceptors would be in California, for a total of 20 by the end of 2005. Twenty Standard Missile-3 interceptors would be aboard three Navy ships.

Hundreds of the Army's Patriot PAC-3 missiles would be deployed around the world to knock down shorter-range missiles in the final phases of their flights.